The federal government has approved Rs 16.750 billion for the land acquisition and construction of road network to connect the under-construction New Islamabad International Airport (NIIA) with motorway and the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
While the land acquisition and other related tasks would cost a total of Rs 5.455 billion, the construction of road networks to be undertaken in four phases would cost Rs 11.295 billion.
The executive committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in a recently held meeting chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has accorded approval for land acquisition and construction of road network projects for the Airport which is likely to be operational next year.
However, the chair directed formation of a committee comprising senior officials from ministries of finance, communication and planning and development to decide about the mode of financing for phase-III which involves construction of a part of main link road to the airport.
According to official sources, more than 85 percent work on the new airport has been completed. Round the clock work is being carried out to complete terminal building in a bid to make the airport operational as early as possible.
The initial cost for the construction of new airport was Rs 31 billion which surged to Rs 81 billion. “When the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz came to power in 2013, about 40 percent work of the project had completed, but on the special directives of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the pace of work was expedited and within two years it has now entered into the final phase,” he added.
He pointed out that even after completion of 40 percent work no planning was made for provision of basic facilities like water supply, approach roads and electricity. “The present government has approved construction of two dams for water supply to the new airport while a grid station has been set up for electric supply,” he added.
According to an official of Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCCA), some two million people traveled through the old airport in a year which would rise to nine million after the new airport became functional.
Two runways had been completed, one of which would be used for emergency landing. The runways have been constructed according to international standards where biggest planes like Air Bus 380 will land.
The government is also mulling over linking the airport with railway track so that the passengers could have easy approach to the airport. Under the directives of prime minister, a power plant will be installed to ensure regular electricity to the airport which would cater to the needs of 15 million passengers in a year.
The PCAA, responsible for execution of this state-of-the-art airport, has also decided for providing security on complete perimeter fencing by installing perimeter intrusion detection system in line with the international standards at airport.
For this purpose, a consultant is being engaged to conduct complete survey of the area measuring 18.4 kilometers and prepare initial report. The airport, to be the first green field airport of Pakistan, will have the facility to cater for the largest commercial aircraft presently operating worldwide.
It will have 15 boarding bridges and will be able to handle 4,00,000 metric tons of cargo. The government has ordered the installation of latest baggage handling system at the airport.
It may be mentioned here that the groundbreaking of the project was performed in April 2007 and it was supposed to be completed within 30 months, initially the cost of the project was estimated to be Rs 37 billion.
Later, the PC-I of the project was revised in March 2012 at a cost of Rs 66 billion. The PCAA had once again revised its expenditures and October 2016 is the anticipated completion date of the project.